Check this site out guys

[LA_MERC_YellowDog]

Tell me what you think,
I saw a reference to this web site the other day on TV.. not sure what show it was, or commercial for that matter, but they seem legitimate.

http://www.stopoilspeculationnow.com/

Their point is basically, its the market driving up the price of oil, not demand, as it should be.

If this site has good intentions, I think its a good idea to support it, Basically signing up and adding your information to their contacts.

I'm real suspicions of any organization wanting my information "Name, address, E-mail"

[LA_MERC_DocSparky]

Wetz, I'm interested in your take on this whole situation. You have experience in both of these areas.

I know that I'm pretty tired of paying twice as much for gas than I was 6 months ago. If you look at the 3 main factors affecting price (supply, demand and risk), none of them has changed dramatically. In fact, demand is starting to back off and risk is down slightly. This leads me to think that it is speculation.

[LA_MERC_Wetzny]

Demand is being driven from developing third world economic growth. Those families who formerly would ride a donkey now have a car. The US has not done enough of it's own development and refining to keep up with the demand from developing Asia, Eastern European nations etc. Hence more buyers + stagnate supply = higher prices. When Boone Pickens says the price MIGHT get back to $100 per barrel, well thats like God saying it might rain. These prices are here for a good long while, speculators or not.

World wide daily oil production is 83 million barrels a day, demand is for 84 Million (and showing no signs of slowing) do the math... Until we produce more of our own here and build a few refineries NOTHING is going to change. If we started TODAY it would still take half a decade or longer to make a meaningful dent in our own capabilities to supply product to our market. Sorry but all the outsourcing of jobs has created a global middle class bent on living like the USA, they see it on TV and want it for themselves.

[LA_MERC_DocSparky]

Thanks for the insight Wetz. Speaking of T Boone Pickens, what do you think of his plan (http://www.pickensplan.com/)?

[LA_MERC_Dirge]

T Boone Pickens plan is not good at all. Wind and solar energy are not reliable or cost-efficent. Not to mention they have more far-reaching environamental impacts than oil. Do a google on high diesel emissions from wind turbines in times of low wind. then check efficiencies and costs of solarcells coupled with stability in storm visited areas (hail, wind damage, etc).

Speculators being the cause of high oil prices is a smokescreen designed to turn you a little bit more against capitalism and expanded domestic oil production/refining and to give congress an excuse to say "don't look at us."

Energy independence is the key to solving our present crisis. A long journey gets started with the smallest step, start now by expanding drilling here in the USSA. China and Cuba are doing it 60 miles from Florida, where we will not drill ourselves.

Before you start on forcing innovation, Government "forced" innovation never produces tangible results. Innovation of alternates to hydrocarbon fuels, etc comes from true entrepreneurs.

I could go on... lol

[LA_MERC_Wetzny]

Not to mention the UGLY arse WIND farms are a FREAKING BLIGHT!!!

[LA_MERC_DocSparky]

T Boone Pickens plan is not good at all. Wind and solar energy are not reliable or cost-efficent. Not to mention they have more far-reaching environamental impacts than oil. Do a google on high diesel emissions from wind turbines in times of low wind. then check efficiencies and costs of solarcells coupled with stability in storm visited areas (hail, wind damage, etc).


Hmm... the video that I saw on there talked about using wind for enough of the electrical generation to open up some additional usage of natural gas for autos. So have you seen the new mechanical method of storing energy using flywheels? It has zero emissions and seems to show promise.

Regardless of all of that, I'm a big advocate of increased production in the short term and let the market find the long term energy source. I just thought I'd throw the link out there to see what popped up.

We had better come up with a plan soon or you can expect some dramatic changes in the global economies with global politics changing soon thereafter.

[LA_MERC_Captain_Obvious]

T Boone Pickens plan is not good at all. Wind and solar energy are not reliable or cost-efficent. Not to mention they have more far-reaching environamental impacts than oil. Do a google on high diesel emissions from wind turbines in times of low wind. then check efficiencies and costs of solarcells coupled with stability in storm visited areas (hail, wind damage, etc).

Speculators being the cause of high oil prices is a smokescreen designed to turn you a little bit more against capitalism and expanded domestic oil production/refining and to give congress an excuse to say "don't look at us."

Energy independence is the key to solving our present crisis. A long journey gets started with the smallest step, start now by expanding drilling here in the USSA. China and Cuba are doing it 60 miles from Florida, where we will not drill ourselves.

Before you start on forcing innovation, Government "forced" innovation never produces tangible results. Innovation of alternates to hydrocarbon fuels, etc comes from true entrepreneurs.

I could go on... lol


Exactly, there is almost no reason why the US should not expand drilling domesticly. It would have a small effect now and a larger effect in a few years. but we should also work on alternative energy sources in the mean time. the Gov. should not lead it, but it should give incentives to corporations that are leading the field in development.

The off-shore wind farms (coming soon off the ocst of Delaware) are a fantastic idea. They could also use wave motion and solar panels all at the same time.

[LA_MERC_Wetzny]

In a dramatic move yesterday President Bush removed the executive-branch moratorium on offshore drilling. Today, at a news conference, Bush repeated his new position, and slammed the Democratic Congress for not removing the congressional moratorium on the Outer Continental Shelf and elsewhere. Crude-oil futures for August delivery plunged $9.26, or 6.3 percent, almost immediately as Bush was speaking, bringing the barrel price down to $136.

Now isn’t this interesting?

Democrats keep saying that it will take 10 years or longer to produce oil from the offshore areas. And they say that oil prices won’t decline for at least that long. And they, along with Obama and McCain, bash so-called oil speculators. And today we had a real-world example as to why they are wrong. All of them. Reid, Pelosi, Obama, McCain — all of them.

Traders took a look at a feisty and aggressive George Bush and started selling the market well before a single new drop of oil has been lifted. What does this tell us? Well, if Congress moves to seal the deal, oil prices will probably keep on falling. That’s the way traders work. They discount the future. Psychology and expectations can turn on a dime.

The congressional ban on offshore drilling expires September 30, so that becomes a key date. A new report from Wall Street research house Sanford C. Bernstein says that California actually could start producing new oil within one year if the moratorium were lifted. The California oil is under shallow water and already has been explored. Drilling platforms have been in place since before the moratorium. They’re talking about 10 billion barrels worth off the coast of California.

There’s also a “gang of 10” in the Senate, five Republicans and five Democrats, that is trying to work a compromise deal on lifting the moratorium. So it’s possible a lot of action on this front could occur much sooner than people seem to think.

So I repeat: Drill, drill, drill. Deregulate, decontrol, and unleash the American energy industry. Those hated traders will then keep selling oil as the laws of supply and demand and free markets keep working.

[LA_MERC_Dirge]

hear hear!!!!

[LA_MERC_Diesel]

si si!!!

[LA_MERC_YellowDog]

Well now, not quit the responses I was expecting, but what Wet's said was good. I believe we need to attack this problem on 2 fronts. Use our own resources to alleviate high prices of fuel thats putting our economy in a bind, and create alternatives to oil. I for one will support any new technology out there that will lead us to a more energy independent country. After all I don't want some other country out there determining what the US will and will not have in future.

[LA_MERC_Captain_Obvious]

I don't want a country from half way across the world drilling and taking oil 60 miles off our coast line.